Skadden partners on the deal included Robert Sullivan, in
the financial institutions group in New York; Todd Freed, in
mergers and acquisitions in New York; and Chris Ulery, in the
mergers and acquisitions practice in Washington.

Sullivan & Cromwell’s New York-based team includes
corporate partners Stephen Kotran and Andrew Rowen as well as
partner David Spitzer on tax matters.

Prudential will finance the acquisition of SRLC America
Holding Corp., which manages closed life insurance funds, from
existing cash holdings, the London-based company said in a
statement yesterday. The purchase is expected to be completed in
the third quarter, pending regulatory approval, it said.

For more, click here.

News

Downing Said to Resign From Justice Department Tax Post

Kevin Downing, the Justice Department prosecutor who
directed the U.S. crackdown on offshore tax evasion, resigned
effective June 4, according to a person familiar with the
matter.

Downing, 46, was the lead prosecutor in the U.S. probe of
UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank. In February 2009, UBS
avoided prosecution by paying $780 million, admitting it helped
thousands of Americans evade taxes and turning over the names of
250 American clients to U.S. authorities. UBS later revealed
another 4,450 accounts.

The U.S. has since charged about 50 U.S. taxpayers with tax
crimes and about two dozen offshore bankers, lawyers and
advisers. Those indicted include seven current and former
bankers from Credit Suisse Group AG, the second-largest Swiss
bank. More than 33,000 Americans avoided prosecution by
voluntarily disclosing offshore accounts to the Internal Revenue
Service.

“Kevin did quite a good job,” said tax attorney William
M. Sharp of Sharp Kemm PA of Zurich and Tampa, Florida. “He
certainly led the charge in the offshore crackdown.”

Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department,
declined to comment on the resignation. The person familiar with
the matter declined to be identified and wasn’t authorized to
talk about the resignation.

For more, click here.

Dewey Collapse Pits Lawyers Versus Lawyers in Years-Long Battle

Creditors waiting to know if and when they will get paid by
Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP may want to consult the case of Coudert
Brothers LLP, the law firm that filed for bankruptcy in 2006.

Almost six years later, lawsuits related to Coudert
Brothers collapse are still wending their way through the
courts, with a federal judge ruling on May 24 that former
partners may be on the hook for revenue from cases they took
with them to their new jobs.

Unwinding Dewey, which filed for protection from creditors
on May 28, marking the biggest bankruptcy in the legal business,
probably will be even more complex, Bloomberg Businessweek
reports in its June 4 issue.

The product of a 2007 merger between Dewey Ballantine and
LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, the mega-practice at one point
had more than 1,300 attorneys spanning 12 countries. The firm,
based in New York, fell apart in a matter of weeks this year
after ousting its chairman and watching at least 250 of its 304
partners decamp to competing firms.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the wind-down took a minimum
of six to seven years,” said Edwin Reeser, a former managing
partner for the Los Angeles office of Sonnenschein Nath &
Rosenthal. “It could take 10.”

With few assets except their bills and partners, law firms’
liquidations tend to be drawn out and contentious. “They don’t
have much of anything -- other than perhaps some lawsuits --once
their moneymakers leave,” said Stephen Lubben, a bankruptcy law
professor at Seton Hall University School of Law.

Lawsuits filed by the bankrupt estate can delay the
process, especially when the defendants are lawyers. Heller
Ehrman LLP, which collapsed in 2008, and Brobeck, Phleger &
Harrison LLP, which dissolved in 2003, are still in the process
of being unwound.

“Their profession is fighting this stuff, and they’re like
professional boxers,” said Chip Bowles, a bankruptcy lawyer
with the firm Bingham Greenebaum Doll LLP in Louisville,
Kentucky.

Dewey owes bank lenders and bondholders $225 million,
according to its May 28 filings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
Manhattan. Outstanding bills to clients in the U.S., carried on
the books at $255 million, may be collected at the rate of about
$3 million to $7 million a week and may never be paid in full,
Dewey said.

The case is In re Dewey & LeBoeuf, 12-12321, U.S.
Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

For more, click here.

Firm News

Minter Ellison SA/NT Names Bannister Managing Partner

Adam Bannister was appointed managing partner of law firm
Minter Ellison SA/NT in South Australia and the Northern
Territory.

He will replace Nigel McBride, who is stepping down from
the position after 12 years.

Bannister, who joined the firm in 2003, heads the dispute
resolution team in Adelaide and is a member of the Minter
Ellison board.

“In a very competitive market, Adam has led and grown our
dispute resolution practice into one of the most successful
practice areas for the firm,” Minter Ellison Chairman Wayne
Jackson said. Bannister takes over amid expected growth in South
Australia’s energy and resources, infrastructure and government
procurement sectors, according to the firm.

Moves

Morrison & Foerster Hires New Partners to Lead Departments

Morrison & Foerster LLP hired two new partners in the past
week who will hold leadership roles at the law firm. Bradley D.
Wine will be co-chairman of the firm’s government contracts
group and Jonathan M.A. Melmed will head the private-equity
practice in New York.

Wine, formerly a Dickstein Shapiro LLP government contracts
partner, will be in the Washington office, Morrison & Foerster
said in a statement. He has experience representing government
contractors and other businesses with a focus on civil
litigation, compliance and client counseling. He has special
expertise in investigations and alleged violations of the False
Claims Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and defective
pricing and export licensing matters.

Melmed, previously a partner with Chadbourne & Park LLP and
head of its Canada practice, represents private equity funds and
portfolio companies, along with hedge funds, public companies
and investment banks, in merger and acquisition deals and other
transactions, Morrison & Foerster said. He has experience in the
alternative energy, infrastructure, media, telecommunications
and life sciences sectors.

Morrison & Foerster has more than 1,000 lawyers in the
U.S., Europe and Asia.

Quinn Emanuel Hires Sixth International Arbitration Specialist

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP hired Tai-Heng Cheng,
who will join the firm’s New York office as a partner in its
international arbitration practice.

Cheng, a former law professor at New York Law School and
co-director of its Institute for Global Law, Justice, and
Policy, is the sixth international arbitration specialist to
join Quinn Emanuel in the past nine months, the firm said in a
statement.

Cheng has served as counsel, tribunal chairman, arbitrator
and expert in investor-state disputes and international
commercial arbitrations.

Quinn Emanuel announced three new arbitration hires earlier
this month. Two Allen & Overy LLP arbitration partners,
including Stephen Jagusch, head of that firm’s international
arbitration practice, were hired to join Quinn Emanuel’s London
office. David Orta joined from Arnold & Porter LLP as head of
the Washington office’s international arbitration practice.

Ivan Marisin, former head of dispute resolution practice at
Dechert LLP, and partner Vasily Kuznetsov were hired by Quinn
Emanuel in October.

Quinn Emanuel has more than 600 lawyers in the U.S., Europe
and Asia.

Crowell & Moring Adds FDA Lawyer in Washington Office

Former U.S. Food and Drug Administration lawyer John H.
Fuson joined Crowell & Moring LLP’s Washington office as a
partner in the health-care, product risk management, white
collar and regulatory enforcement and intellectual property
groups.

Fuson, who joined the FDA in 2007, was an associate chief
counsel, working with the U.S. Justice Department’s Consumer
Protection Branch. He brought enforcement actions on behalf of
the FDA, Crowell & Moring said in a statement.

Fuson handled FDA enforcement actions, including seizure
and injunction actions, pursuit of civil money penalties, and
contempt cases. He also counseled the agency on its enforcement
strategy for device, drug and food manufacturers, the firm said.

“Crowell & Moring has a premier regulatory and litigation
practice,” Fuson said in a statement. “The FDA regulates over
$1 trillion of the U.S. economy -- about 25 percent of consumer
spending -- and our ability to provide comprehensive risk
management counsel and knowledgeable representation in
investigations and litigation is essential to our clients.”

Crowell & Moring has about 500 lawyers representing clients
in litigation and arbitration, regulatory and transactional
matters in the U.S. and Europe.

Litigation

Goldman CEO Blankfein to Testify at Gupta Trial, U.S. Says

With jurors briefly out of the courtroom yesterday, Brodsky
told U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan that
prosecutors would call Blankfein as their next-to-last witness
in a prosecution case that may wrap up on June 6. Brodsky didn’t
say what Blankfein would testify about.

Blankfein testified at last year’s trial of Galleon Group
LLC co-founder Raj Rajaratnam, to whom Gupta is accused of
leaking inside information. Rajaratnam was convicted and
sentenced to 11 years in prison. Gupta denies wrongdoing.

Defense attorney Gary Naftalis identified likely defense
witnesses as well, listing Gupta family members and Gupta’s
personal assistant and saying he planned on reading deposition
testimony from Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s reinsurance chief, Ajit
Jain, a close friend of Gupta’s. Naftalis said he didn’t know
yet whether Gupta would testify on his own behalf.

Gupta, who ran McKinsey & Co. from 1994 to 2003, is on
trial for leaking tips about Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble
Co., where he was also a director. One of the alleged tips
involved a Berkshire Hathaway investment in Goldman Sachs. Gupta
has pleaded not guilty.

In listing defense witnesses, Naftalis named individuals
including Rick Schutte, Galleon’s former U.S. president; Richard
Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis & Malaria; and Gregory Orman. Naftalis didn’t say
what the witnesses would testify about.

The case is U.S. v. Gupta, 11-cr-00907, U.S. District
Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).